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By Richard Reichert I want to give some attention to an under publicized restaurant and winery that gives surprising quality and value for the prices they charge. The and Restaurant are located between St Catharines, Niagara on the Lake and Queenston. It never occurred to me that trying out this place was something you would do for a relaxing lunch. The first thought that comes to mind is that you are part of an experiment, with you as a guinea pig, being waited on by young inexperienced staff who "are training on the job". You expect that you will bear the brunt of their mistakes but you will just tough it out since you are lending a helping hand and have volunteered for community service. The thought to try out the college came to me a couple of years ago when my wife went out with some workmates to Humber College restaurant in downtown Toronto. Their experience turned out very well and the price they paid for dinner was quite reasonable. The Niagara Culinary Institute Dining Room is located in a glass enclosed structure that gives a view of the Niagara escarpment and the vineyards on the Niagara College property. All restaurant staff that serve customers are fulltime students who work under direct supervision of experienced instructors. The menu has a choice of fixed price or a la carte. We selected the fixed price entree's that included appetizer, main course and desert. The wine is extra but offers specials of 20.00 per bottle on stock that is running out. All choices offered are based on what the students are taught in their curriculum. I had the Open Faced Ribeye Sandwich "Cafe de Paris" with Pomme Frites and Grilled Summer Vegetables. It was so good I duplicate this meal at home except that I use beef tenderloin instead of ribeye. Their wine list includes selections from a number of area wineries as well as their own. We selected their award winning Winery Barrel Fermented 2004 Chardonnay (they were out of stock in the wine store but the dining room was still selling it). The wait-staff were polite and friendly and our server went out of his way to establish a great rapport with us. He mentioned that the dining room and winery were not very well publicized (he didn't know that I write these columns) so I decided to do something about it since we have experienced their service first hand. We really didn't visit the Niagara Teaching Winery proper but we did see their vineyards in passing and we did taste their wines sold in their wine shop. Their Warren Classic Chardonnay 2004 ($27.95, it won a silver medal at the Finger Lakes International Competition) became part of our collection even though we didn't taste it, because of time constraints. We bought it on faith because of the wonderful Chardonnay we had in the dining room (the wine shop had no stock) and because of another Chardonnay that I am going to go into detail about. NCT Unoaked Chardonnay 2004 ($13.95) wine has a pale straw gold colour with a very concentrated nose of pear, peach and apple with a touch of butter. The palate is full bodied. Chilling is important because there is heat on the palate otherwise. The flavours are concentrated but balanced with intense citrus-apple notes and a long citrus finish. This is good stuff, I will have it with steak (I follow Tim Hanni wine food matching principles) but by all means have it with fish or fowl if you like. I brought back a case and would have brought back more if I had the room. An excellent value for the money spent. My rating - 90. If you want to pay about one third less than you would at another winery restaurant, but get a great meal, then check out Niagara College Winery and Restaurant. Copyright Wine Dining .net |
Niagara Culinary Institute Dining Room 
A view of the Niagara Escarpment and Vineyards on the Niagara College Campus 
